Preface

In February of this year, I was invited by the Sociedade Vipassanā de Meditação and the Grupo Karuṇā, both of Brasília, to give a talk and lead a retreat on the topic of karma. This book contains edited English transcripts of both events, plus the readings that were sent to the retreatants beforehand.

Karma is a teaching whose meaning is widely misunderstood and whose usefulness is under-appreciated in Western Buddhist circles, to say nothing of the West at large. So, in preparing for the talk and the retreat, I thought it would be a good opportunity to focus on the most basic principles, showing that—far from teaching determinism or fatalism—the Buddha’s teachings on karma are designed to show the power of intentions in shaping a person’s life for the better.

I hope that you find the discussions here helpful in making the best use of the power of your own karma.

I would like to thank Katatto Bhikkhu for being my translator during the talk at SVM and the retreat at Paraíso na Terra; Julia Uddén for her help in transcribing the talks; and the members of the Sociedade Vipassanā de Meditação and the Grupo Karuṇā for their hospitality during my time in Brazil.

Note: In general, I’ve used the Pali forms of Buddhist technical terms mentioned in these talks. However, because the Sanskrit form of the word karma has been adopted into the English language, I’ve used it instead of the Pali form, kamma, in the transcripts of the talks. Still, because the readings are from the Pali Canon, I’ve kept kamma in those.

Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu

(Geoffrey DeGraff)